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Links, links, links to read, read, read. I know it's a lot, so here's one for the TL;DR crowd: Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States by Ezra Klein. It even has graphs! I love graphs, don't you?
Klein amended: Mythbusting: Israel and Switzerland ( Read more... )
James Brady and his wife, Sarah, went on to become active in the gun-control movement, but neither the assassination attempt nor Carter’s past derailed the gun-rights movement. In 1986, the N.R.A.’s interpretation of the Second Amendment achieved new legal authority with the passage of the Firearms Owners Protection Act, which repealed parts of the 1968 Gun Control Act by invoking “the rights of citizens . . . to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.” This interpretation was supported by a growing body of scholarship, much of it funded by the N.R.A. According to the constitutional-law scholar Carl Bogus, at least sixteen of the twenty-seven law-review articles published between 1970 and 1989 that were favorable to the N.R.A.’s interpretation of the Second Amendment were “written by lawyers who had been directly employed by or represented the N.R.A. or other gun-rights organizations.” In an interview, former Chief Justice Warren Burger said that the new interpretation of the Second Amendment was “one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word ‘fraud,’ on the American public by special-interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore#ixzz2FFztlxs2
It is infuriating.
The thing is, I don't know how many of these people do it for the media attention. Part of the blame lies in the failure of our mental health system--but even should we improve that, I think it is still the logical argument that we don't want such weapons readily available to anyone who might suddenly have a bout of depression that could push them that far, to hurting themselves or hurting others.
I will be honest here; there was a time not too long ago where I was depressed enough that I remember having the clear thought that if I'd owned a gun, I might have just shot myself because it'd be so easy. Some of the links above talk about how stricter gun laws reduced suicide rates because of the lack of availability of such a devastating tool to do the deed. It was one of the things that rang scarily true for me.
The American media when talking about gun control (especially if they're pro-stricter gun laws) keeps stressing that "correlation is not causation" but the correlation consistently is speaking to reduction of (homicidal) crime and suicide rates--when does correlation become causation? How big does the sample size of reduced numbers in other countries with strict(er) gun laws have to be?
I don't know. Reading comments, I know people felt indescribable rage at the shooter. But I was surprised to feel I didn't. I pitied him. My anger was directed at us as a nation, this great failure of ours to try to reduce and check our violent temperament.
I just don't know. I don't know how anyone who is a parent or an aunt or an uncle or has loved ones can look at these events and not feel a visceral fear. Why would we want this as a problem to worry about? Why should I have to worry about children going to school to get an education being mowed down by guns wielded by classmates or madmen?
(But to end on a lighter note, pixiv has reminded me how cute ShizNat was/is! I spent last night going through a ton of fanart and then constructing a headcanon where Natsuki Kruger isn't so fail and she and Shizuru have an effective partnership running Garderobe. XD)
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Interesting. Because you know - I do. A few people I know, including one of my cousins are hunters, my another cousin is a policeman and my friend does sport shooting (I did too). All of them own guns. Considering that in US there are 88.8 fireams per 100 people and in Poland it is 1.3/100 I think I need to rethink my circle of acquaintances ;)
So, you didn't do a paintball then - because you shoot people during this game. I am sorry, I digress :3.
There is another thing I've found interesting. As I understand the Second Amendment was made when there only black powder guns were in use. You see, in my country you can buy as much black powder guns as you wish, no single restriction about that. So we are true to your Second Amendment :) But there is a fundamental difference between old guns and modern guns and to use an old law to modern things usually is not only impractical but stupid. Just saying.
I bet our mental-health system works no better. But there is a trick with guns and psychos - everybody wanting a gun needs to pass not only a police scan, but also a meeting with a shrink (among other things). And the process is repeated every 5 years. It helps to avoid giving guns to wrong people. Now this is a time for me to get worried and be thankful taht you don't have a need to own a gun O_o. I have no reference to amount of suicides with plenty of guns around and without, but definitely you have a point: using a gun is very easy, that's why it is so dangerous. But again I got myself surprised, because according to wiki a suicide rate is much higher in gun-less countries. In my country is higher than in yours. Another surprise: men are much much more suicidal than women. This made me wondering about my acquaintances again: I knew 3 people who killed themselves, all men, but at the same time I knew nobody who was killed in a car accident (and I hope it stays this way), even though a number of deaths here and there are about the same. Now I got myself scared.
"Correlation is not causation". Bitch Oh please. We have very kind/mild road laws and very bad roads and we are the best road killers in EU. Nobody denies that correlation proves causation here, but we simply don't care. No, I am wrong, we do - our goverment implements new laws which should help in reducing bad numbers again and again. We'll see.
As a parent I simply can't watch/read about this tragedy, because it makes me extremely sad and angry and I can't stop tears. And knowing that nothing will be done about it hurts the most. This is too much. This is why I simply avoid most of the info. So I am very sorry for throwing all this statistical data at you. Looking into data is for me probably a way to release some stress.
And the lighter note :).
Why oh why have you reminded me about pixiv? Now I am lost to the world :D (which fanarts did you like the best? AND FANFIC PLS?!?!)
And because epigenetics is my little hobby, I've found this article pretty interesting, or even quite cool :).
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The Second Amendment just really wasn't about regular citizens owning guns, but was a provision to provide for local militias to defend States. The Jill Lepore article is long but really good and breaks things down about the evolution of the NRA-backed argument that the Second Amendment covers the type of gun ownership we have today, including pointing out that 18th century guns aren't today's modern efficient and light mechanism.
The cause of suicide can be caused by so many things that you'd have to start breaking down a million factors. That article talking about the results of Switzerland's and Israel's changes to stricter gun laws had some interesting changes in numbers just specifically noting gun-related deaths. (There's a digression about Israel having really high rates of suicide by strangulation though, which is a whole different story.)
Note to self: Don't drive in Poland.
I was devastated by this mass shooting, which really surprised me because none of the other shootings had hit me like this. This was just so . . . so senseless.
I didn't know about pixiv until like a week ago! Then it ate my life! I kind of just went through the tags like a zombie without noting too much because that would have taken even more time! But here's one: the series by this person of the little omakes with the mini animal Shizuru, Nao, and Natsuki interacting with their regular selves. XD
No fanfics, but you can have a big essay.
Hm. Interesting. I didn't even know what epigenetics was until right now. XD
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